Flamenco guitarist, dancer to perform in Kuching

TO celebrate the culturally rich Spanish music and dance, International Music House and The Ballet & Dance House will hold a Night of Flamenco Music and Ballet, featuring renowned flamenco guitarist Adolfo Toyoda Timuat.

FLAMENCO DUO: Timuato and Balashova will spice up the concert with their breathtaking flamenco music and dance.

The talented guitarist, who holds the title of Luthier of Stringed Instruments from Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, will be performing in the concert at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on August 3 alongside multi-talented flamenco dancer Tatyana Balashova.

Timuat, born in Japan to Filipino and Japanese parents, is recognised by the Spanish guitar-circle of authorities as the guitarrista de concierto, luthier, compositor, profesor, and e investigador (scholar-researcher). He has performed solo at the famous Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre as well as travelled extensively in Europe, Scandinavia, Turkey, Israel and Asia.

Besides globe-trotting, Timuato is presently teaching at Runnymede College, and a consultant to leading guitar makers in Madrid. He also supplies tone woods to manufacturers of guitar in the Philippines.

Balashova was born in England of Russian-Scottish parentage but brought up in Zambia where she first learned ballet at four.

On returning to Britain, she continued her studies in Scotland with Barbara Pass of the British Ballet Organisation, and later in England with Ostap Buriak, president of the Anglo Dominion Association of Teachers of Dancing (ADATD) and ex-partenaire of Alicia Markova.

Having performed in British theatres and on TV with Buriak in ballet and Russian dance, she graduated with gold medal and honours as a ballet teacher.

She also graduated from London University with an honours degree in French and Spanish before going to Spain to learn Spanish dance and further her knowledge on Spanish culture.

She studied flamenco and classical Spanish dance with several maestros, in particular Ciro, Paco Romero La Tati and Merche Esmeralda. At the same time, she co-validated her music studies at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Mœsica in Madrid where she graduated as a piano teacher.

At this time, she worked with various Spanish dance groups and performed in music concerts with Atrium Musicae, directed by the celebrated musicologist Gregorio Paniagua.

As a dancer, she performed in a classical Greek theatre in the Templo de Debod in Madrid and was invited to return the following year to choreograph the next play — The Pot of Gold by Plautus.

Balashova made a shift from Spanish to Oriental dance through contact with Shokry Mohammed, with whom she studied classical Egyptian dance and folklore. Later, she went to Cairo to study with Fathy Andrawis, choreographer of the Egyptian National Dance Company.

Balashova partnered Shokry and performed with his Hispano Arabic Dance Group for several years. At Expo ’92 in Seville, she represented Egypt together with Shokry and Nur Banu.

She went on to study classical South Indian dance under the maestro Gloria Mandelik, Uma Sharma and Mata from Benares. She has performed this dance at various venues, including the Sala Triangulo, the Indian Embassy and in a master class at the Royal Conservatory of Classical Dance for the Asociaci—n de Profesionales de la Danza.

In 1995, she journeyed to Madras to dance a solo recital (arangetram) of a complete Bharata Natya programme in a temple in Adyar.

The various styles have enabled Tatyana to produce a unique synthesis of dance that she developed in her work in Danza Andalousie.

For over 10 years, she worked with the celebrated musicologist Eduardo Paniagua in this genre, travelling to Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Japan.

Throughout this time, she maintained a working relationship with the exceptional Timuat, performing all over Spain and in the Lincoln Center of New York.

In 2002, they taught together at Manila’s UP University and performed throughout the Philippines, and are now offering a variety of programmes, including flamenco, classical Spanish music and dance and other styles of dance, such as Indian and Arabic which have provided the roots of the Spanish dance.

Meanwhile, the second half of the concert will see the performance of up and coming ballerinas from      The Ballet & Dance House in ballet classics and highlights from the third act of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

Choreographed by tutor Lyubov Maklakova, most of the ballerinas, aged five upwards, have completed their Royal Academy of Dance exams and will be performing more creative dances at the concert.

The Swan Lake fairytale is about a half-swan, half-woman who becomes fully human if loved without reserve by a man. Fighting Von Rothbart’s insidious designs, Odette-Odile and Siegfried triumphantly ascend the promontory from where Von Rothbart had earlier cast his spell on the pair.

IMH Academy director of studies Geraldine Law-Lee, who has been trying for years to promote the music and arts scene in Kuching, promises the concert will be a night to remember.

“With the vivacious flamenco treats from Timuato and Balashova, and the cast of Swan Lake with their elegant and colourful costumes, the show is sure to captivate the hearts of the audience,” said Lee, who thanked BCCK chairman Datuk Hajah Raziah Mahmud-Geneid for making the event possible.

Tickets for the concert to start at 7pm, are priced at RM25, RM50 and RM100 and available at International Music House. For further enquiries, call 082-424658.